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Seedbed preparation under way on John Stokes' tillage farm in Co Cork, where Westerwolds will be sown to alleviate pressure on the fodder shortage.

As farmers try to replenish the shortage of fodder, demand for Westworlds is at a record high in the UK. This is according to DLF Seeds, which is also predicting a similar demand in Ireland following the announcement of the Fodder Production Incentive by Minister Creed.

Stock can be grazing within eight to 10 weeks

As many farmers have used or failed to harvest some of their winter feed, there is a large deficit developing across the UK and Ireland. DLF says the demand for Westerwolds is driven by the need to fill this gap and because it is one of the most vigorous grass varieties on the market.

“Westerwolds is the most vigorous grass variety out there – once it's sown and has germinated, stock can be grazing within eight to 10 weeks,” explains David Rhodes, technical manager at DLF. “That compares with a wait of around 12 weeks with perennial ryegrass, so it’s unsurprising that demand has rocketed."

Performance

Outlining the performance of Westerwolds, he said it would yield 2-5t/ha in autumn. Those fields could then be closed for a cut of silage in spring, before sowing spring crops. This, Rhodes says, makes it capable of growing up to 20t DM/ha in its first year.

Ideally, the crop should be sown from August to early September. However, it can be drilled up to the second week in October once a maize crop has been harvested.

“You can plough and prepare as usual or simply harrow and roll it into a decent seedbed. Once it’s up and away, it becomes the perfect solution to the feed gap that farmers are experiencing,” Rhodes concluded.

The United Kingdom will not be able to source alternatives to Irish beef and dairy overnight European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan has said.

Commissioner Hogan said it was important not to have a panicked reaction to the UK's revealing of its no-deal tariff plan last week. While 87% of products would enter the UK tariff free, Irish beef and cheese would be disproportionately affected.

At a media briefing in Brussels, the Commissioner said it was unlikely that UK consumers would change their preferences overnight and were unlikely to accept lower food standards.

He said the UK announcement had been made with little thought, to deflect attention from chaos in the House of Commons. The Commissioner described Brexit as "the most amateurish project ever".

Supports

To reassure farmers, Hogan said the EU had considerable experience in dealing with threats to farmers, citing BSE, foot and mouth disease and the Russian embargo.

The supports available to farmers will be dependent on the outcome of Brexit, he said.

Ending the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit is the priority for the European Commission as a whole, Hogan said. He added that EU member states want certainty given the energy that had been expended to date.

In areas where a road or river runs through a land parcel, it will be split into two separate parcels. In this image the blue line is the old mapping system and the white line is the new one. The old parcel here has been split into two, A and B.

Farmers affected by new Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) maps for 2019 need to ensure that they check the maximum eligible area (MEA) when they make their application. This was the key message coming from the Department at its Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) rebuild information meetings in Louth.

One farmer told the Irish Farmers Journal that he saw a slight change in his eligible area in one field that went from 3.9ha to 4.01ha. He noted that if he did not adjust his claim area to the new larger area, then he would not benefit from it.

“If you increase your Maximum Eligible Areas (MEA) you do need to tick the box,” Department official Eoin Dooley said.

“There is a process coming in this year that if you want to increase your MEA you can email your geotagged photo into us and we will clear that straight away. If you increase above the MEA we will have to check it.”

However, if there is a reduction in the eligible area this will automatically reduce the farmer’s claimed area to match the new eligible area.

Payment

Farmers and advisors at both information meetings said that the Department, in previous years, has sent claims back where a farmer has increased his/her area. In these instances they say payments are held up.

“It has been the policy that if you make a query on eligibility you will be last to be paid,” one advisor in Louth said.

Fintan O’Brien from the Department responded by saying: “I can give you an undertaking that is not our policy and that will not happen. The facility is there to change the MEA. Each exclusion is given a unique identifier, you put in a note to say that was removed.”

The normal appeals system remains in place for farmers in Louth that wish to query the new maps.

The two information meetings for the LPIS rebuild in Louth are now complete. Some farmers told the Irish Farmers Journal that they had already made their BPS application and others said that the meeting was a helpful clarification on what they should do when applying.

Tillage farmer Pat McGuinness was there to find out why the online application system does not allow field names to be included beside field numbers, something he said is important for Irish heritage and would make the application process easier.